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SENATE. j Ex. Doc. 



AXES SAGE 

FROM THE 

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



COMMUNICATING, 



In answer to a Senate resolution of April 20, 1878, information respecting 
the terms and conditions under which the surrender of the Cuban insur- 
gents has been made, and in relation to the future policy of Si)ain in the 
government of the island of Cuba. 



May 14. 1878.-— Read, referred to the Committee or Foreign Relations, and ordered to 

be printed. 



To the Senate of the United Stettes : 

In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 20th ultimo, I trans- 
mit, herewith, a report from the Secretary of State, with its accompany- 
ing papers. 

E. B. HATES. 

Washington, May 14, 1878. 



Department of State, 
Washington. May 14, 1878. 
The Secretary of State, to whom was referred the resolution of the 
Senate of the 20th ultimo. requesting the President "to communicate to 
the Senate, if not incompatible with the public interests, such informa- 
tion as the government has received respecting the terms and conditions 
under which the surrender of the Cuban insurgents has been made, to- 
gether with such other information in his possession respecting the 
future policy of Spain in the government of the island of Cuba," has the 
honor to lay before the President the papers specified in the subjoined 
list, which contain the information called for by the resolution. 

WM. M. EVAETS. 
To the President. 



LIST OF PAPERS. 
Correspondence with the Spanish Legation. 

No. 1. General Joveilar to Mr. Mantilla. [Telegram.] Havana. February 16, 1878. 
.. Mr. Mantilla to Mr. Evarts. Washington, March 23. IrTr. Ex: acts.; 
«ame to the same Washington, March 23, 1878. 
No 4. The same to the same. Washington, April 3. ir?-;. (Extracts.) 
No. 5-. Mr. Seward to Mr. Mantilla. Washington, April 10, l~7r. 



GOVERNMENT OF THE ISLAND OF CUBA. 
Correspondence with the Consulate-General at Havana. 

No. 6. Mr. Hall to Mr. Seward. (No. 063.) Havana, February 16, 1878. 
No. 7. The same to the same. (No. 6m.) Havana, February 23, 1878. 
No. 8. Mr. Seward to Mr. Hall. Was/ington, February 26, 1878. 
No. 9. Mr. Hall to Mr. Seward. (No/666.) Havana, March 2, 1878. 
No. 10. The same to the same. (No: 6^7.) Havana, March 2, 187ti. 
No. 11. The same to the same. (No'. 668.) Havana, March 5, 1878. 
No. 12. Mr. Seward to Mr. Hall. Washington, March 12, 1878. 



No. 1. 

General Jovellar to Mr. Mantilla. — Handed to Mr. Evarts by Mr. Man- 
tilla, February 16, 1878. 

[Translation.] 

Hatana, February 16. 
(Spanish) Minister, Washington: 

His excellency has suspended the operations of the campaign in con- 
sequence of agreements between the generalin-chief and the central 
junta of the insurgents, which, it is very probable, will give peace as the 
final result. 

JOVELLAE. 



No. 2. 
Mr. Mantilla to Mr. Evarts. 

Washington, March 23, 1878. (Received March 23.) 
The undersigned, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary 
of His Catholic Majesty, has the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the 
note of the honorable the Secretary of State of the United States, of the 
21st instant, referring to the pacification of the island of Cuba. 

The undersigned is collecting data and information necessary to an- 
swering the aforesaid note, which he will be able to do in a very few 
days. ***** In a few days the undersigned will have the 
honor to send a note to the honorable Mr. Evarts, acquainting him more 
fully with the situation in Cuba, and answering his of March 2 1st, and 
in the meanwhile he avails himself of this occasion to renew him the 
assurance of his very high consideration. 

ANTONIO MANTILLA. 



^ No. 3. 

(Mr. Mantilla to Mr. Evarts.) 

[Translation.] 

Legation of Spain at Washington, 
Washington, March 23, 1878. (Received March 25, 1878.) 
The undersigned, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary 
of His Catholic Majesty, in compliance with the desire to be accurately 



S- /OzozL 



GOVERNMENT OF THE ISLAND OF CUBA. 3 

informed as to the present real condition of the Island of Cuba, winch 
was expressed to him by the honorable Secretary of State of the United 
States, during their conference of Thursday, the 21st instant, takes 
pleasure in communicating the official information which lie has received 
in relation to the latest phase and speedy termination of the civil con- 
test in that island. 

Without investigating the origin of the unjustifiable and useless Cu- 
ban insurrection, or enumerating the various causes, both internal and 
external, which have occasioned its duration for a longer time than it 
could have lasted under normal circumstances in Spain, or drawing a 
comparison between the ever conciliatory policy of the Spanish govern- 
ment, and the until lately uncompromising one of the misguided sons of 
the mother country, which task he thinks he could easily and trium- 
phantly perform to the satisfaction of his countrymen and the enlight- 
enment of foreigners, but which would require more time than he now 
has at his disposal, the undersigned will confine himself to a brief sketch 
of the most remarkable circumstances that gave rise to the latest events. 

The insurrection having been broken by various causes, both internal 
and external, with its most active forces reduced by the action of time 
and the vicissitudes of the struggle to elements which were for the 
most part foreign, with no connection with each other, and having 
no direct interest in the future of the island, and having been con- 
quered by the policy of energy in the field of battle, of generosity tow- 
ard the misguided insurgents, and of clemency toward the vanquished, 
which was so happily inaugurated by Generals Jovellar and Martinez 
Campos, the present governor and captain-general of the island, and 
the general-in-chief of its army; the insurrection, I say, was in a visible 
state of decadence when, in October last, several of the most prominent 
Cuban leaders surrendered unconditionally to the Spanish authorities, 
and spontaneously undertook the task of bringing over to their pacific 
plans the few leaders of Cuban origin who still remained in the ranks of 
the insurgents. 

Having been taken and tried by court-martial, by order of the gen- 
eneral-in-chief of the Cuban forces, some of these leaders paid for their 
patriotic efforts at pacification with their lives; but, almost at the same 
time, the shadows of a legislative chamber and of a government of the 
imaginary Republic of Cuba, which never had any form or real life, nor 
any foot-hold in any city, village, or hamlet, and which for some time 
had been wandering through the thickest forests of the most inaccessible 
portion of the extensive and thinly-peopled region of Camaguey, were at 
last overtaken and surprised by small bodies of Spanish troops, the 
chamber, in its mountain encampment, and the head of the government 
while leaving that encampment on a political errand. 

The result was the dispersion of the so-called chamber (house) of rep- 
resentatives, the death of its presiding officer, Don Eduardo Machado 
Gomez, and some of its members; that of the Secretary of War, Lieut. 
Col. La Rua, and the capture of the president of the so-called republic, 
Don Tomas Estrada, who was not tried by any court, but sent to Spain 
by the government. The treatment received by Mr. Estrada from the 
time of his arrival at the Spanish headquarters, the consideration shown 
him during his brief stay in the Morro Castle at Havana by the captain- 
general of the island, and complaints made by him against his political 
friends and partisans, not only on account of their abandonment of him, 
but also of the accusations of disloyalty which had been made by them 
against him, form the subject of the last part of a letter written by him 
to one of them residing in New York, which was published on the 15th 



4 GOVERNMENT OF THE ISLAND OF CUBA. 

of December in the Cubau newspapers of that city. That portion which 
is the most interesting of this long letter will be found in Appendix A. 

Speaking of the aspect then presented by the insurrection in Cuba, 
one of its organs in New York, La Independencia, in its number for 
October 27, 1877, after referring to the latest news received from Cuba 
as grave and highly important, sought to make it appear less significant, 
expressing itself thus : 

" The news to which we refer is by no means improbable. We know 
what has happened in Cuba during the past year, and this news does 
not surprise us, it being in our opinion, the finale of a great crisis which 
has been coining on in the insurgent camp since the citizen, Tomas Es- 
trada Palma became president of our republic, who, according to the 
Spanish dispatch which we publish elsewhere, has been taken prisoner 
by a detachment of Spanish troops near Holguin, together with the sec- 
retary and several members of the legislative chamber. 

''Suffice it to say, that according to all the private information that we 
have received during the past two mouths, it seems to be indubitable 
that President Estrada and the chamber had been deposed by the lib- 
erating army, and that they had consequently ceased to perforin 
their official functions. * * * The vitality of the Cuban insurrection 
does not depend and never has depended upon the government or the 
chamber; it depends exclusively upon the liberating army. * * * The 
organization of the liberating array is such that a brigade, a regiment, 
a battalion, a company, or a party of twenty-five men can operate inde- 
pendently against the enemy in any department, without requiring any 
instructions save those of their immediate military officers, because 
their purpose is but one, and that is known by heart, as well by the 
general as the soldier, by the negro as well as the white man or the 
Chinese, viz, to make war on the enemy at all times, in all places, and 
by all means; with the gun, the machete,* and the fire-brand. In 
order to do this, which is the duty of every Cuban soldier, the direction 
of a government or legislative chamber is not needed ; the order of a 
subaltern officer, serving under the general-in-chief, is sufficient. Thus 
it is that the government and chamber have in reality been a superfluous 
luxury for the revolution." 

What an admirable organization was this of the Cuban army, divided 
up into parties of twenty-five, the majority of them being negroes and 
Chinese, according to the organ of the insurgents! What wretched 
military tactics, according to which the use of the machete and the 
fire-brand was allowable ! What consideration and respect appear to 
have been shown to the executive and legislative branches of the Ee- 
public of Cuba by the general-in-chief, who is represented as having 
deposed those branches and having proclaimed himself dictator ! The 
article in which a full statement of this is made is given entire in Ap- 
pendix B, that it may be placed on file in the Department of State, 
since it is too late to submit it to the consideration and examination of 
those who favor the recognition of the belligerency or independence of 
Cuba. 

This article is full of the passion and exaggeration of the inflammable 
spirit of the Cuban emigrants who, in the secure asylum of this country, 
and abusing the generous hospitality of the United States, have for 
many years been lending aid and comfort to the Cuban insurrection, 
advocating the extermination of the Spaniards, aud upholding the use 
of the murderous machete and of the torch of the incendiary as the 
principal means of securing the independence of the island, to which 

*For a good definition of this word, see late editions of Webster's Dictionary. 









GOVERNMENT OF THE ISLAND OF CUBA. 

task they are still ardently devoting their efforts, although the contest 
has been abandoned by those whom these emigrants, without incurring 
any risk themselves, would have wished to see convert the splendid and 
rich soil of Cuba into a vast pile of ruins and ashes ; but there is a great 
deal of truth in the description of the character lately presented by the 
insurrection, and in the description of the insurgent bands, which could 
no longer be called Cuban, and in the assertion that for such bauds and 
such purposes the chamber and the government were a superfluous lux- 
ury. 

This being the view taken by the few but still influential Cubans who 
remained in Camaguey, the center of the insurrectionary movement, and 
who were fighting for independence, hot for the ruin of the island, 
having more confidence in the well-tried generosity of Spain than in the 
fatal counsels of the emigrants in this country, in January last they 
made proposals of peace to the general-in-chief, seeking to obtain a sus- 
pension of hostilities in the territorial zone in which the Cuban chamber 
and government then were, the former being composed of only six 
members, the latter having been dissolved by the capture of President 
Estrada, and the general opinion of the people and of the armed force 
being expressed in favor of the termination of the struggle, only very 
few dissenting, the majority co-operating in the work of peace, and all 
intrusting the powers of the republic to a revolutionary committee 
which was instructed to make proposals of peace to the general-in-chief. 
By the middle of February a capitulation was reached, the preliminaries 
of which are not yet known to the undersigned, but whose terms were 
published in an extra issued by the Havana Gazette, the original of 
which is transmitted in Appendix C. 

The arrangement made with the central committee having been made 
applicable to all the departments of the island, some of the principal 
leadersof the insurrection, among them the most prominent of all, Maximo 
Gomez, put themselves in communication with the other insurgent leaders, 
with a view of persuading them to put an end to the contest and to 
capitulate; and the revolutionary committee, which had assumed all 
the powers of the insurrection, commissioned Brigadier-General Gabriel 
Gonzales to inform, verbally, representatives in New York of the dis- 
solved government " of the events that had just taken place in the 
territory of the republic." 

Meanwhile the scattered bands of insurgents in Camaguey having 
been collected, on the 2Sth of February, which was the day appointed 
for the surrender, defiled in Puerto Principe before the general-in-chief 
of the Spanish army, amid the most enthusiastic acclamations, and on 
the day following, March 1, the undersigned received at New York the 
following telegram from the captain-general of Cuba : 

Havana, March 1, 1878. 
To the Minister of Spain: 

Yesterday all the bands in the department of Principe, to the number of about one thou- 
sand men, with an equal number of women and children, surrendered, together with the 
central committee ; also those of Sancti Spiritus and La Trocha, estimated at eight hundred. 
Other surrenders are expected in a few days. The general-in-chief leaves Principe for the 
oriental department, in order to accelerate matters. 

JOYELLAR. 

On the same day tha tthe formerly rebel forces of Camaguey sur- 
rendered, Brigadier-General Gonzales arrived in New York, having been 
deputed by the revolutionary committee of that territory (at the head 
of whom was the ex-president of the legislative chamber, formerly pro- 
visional president of the republic and the author of some of its most 



6 GOVERNMENT OF THE ISLAND OF CUBA. 

severe decrees, especially of the one against Cubans who should listen 
to proposals of peace not based upon the recoguition of the independence 
of Cuba) to notify the representatives of the dissolved government of 
the events that had taken place in the territory of the ex-republic, which 
representatives, notwithstanding the recent public manifestations of 
some of them against the probability of the reported surrender of the 
insurgents without a recognition of Cuban independence, yielding to 
the irresistible force of facts, recognized as no longer doubtful the disso- 
lution of the Cuban chamber and government, and hastened to declare 
that "they no longer exercised the functions confided to them by said 
government." 

The document in which this declaration was contained was sent on 
the evening of the 1st to the newspapers of New York, and was printed 
in full in the New York Herald of the 2d, and published on the 9th in 
the Cuban revolutionary organ called La Independencia, in the form 
shown by the printed slip in Appendix D. 

Since that time all the newspapers in the United States have been 
full of telegraphic news concerning surrenders in Cuba of more or less 
numerous parties under more or less prominent leaders, concerning 
hopes of speedy and absolute peace, concerning the feelings of frater- 
nity and forgetfulness of the past now prevailing among those who were 
yesterday fighting on hostile fields, of which hopes and feelings the 
consul of the United States at Havana became the organ in a communi- 
cation of the 5th to the Department of State, an extract from which was 
published in the Washington papers, and concerning the indignation 
with which the capitulating Cuban leaders and the sympathizers in 
Cuba with the cause defended by them regarded the warlike declara- 
tions of the uncompromising revolutionists in New York, and the pur- 
pose which was publicly expressed by them to organize fresh expeditions 
to prevent the complete pacification of the island ; but the governor, 
captain-general of Cuba, who acts in everything, especially in matters 
of so grave a nature as the one in question, with as much sincerity as 
circumspection, addressed to the undersigned, in that relatively long 
space of time, the following telegram only: 

Havana, March 19, 1878. 
To the Minister of Spain at Washington : 

Yesterday ended the surrender of the insurgent forces of the Villas, whose territory is 
now entirely free. Those who surrendered were Major-General Roloff, Brigadier-General 
Maestre, three colonels, fifty-five officers, four hundred and four private soldiers, and about 
one hundred women and children. 

The bands in Bayamo, Manzanillo, and Tiguani had already surrendered on the 8th, 
with Modesto Diaz, so that the country is completely pacified as far as Holguin. 

JOVELLAR. 

As is seen by the foregoing telegram, and as may be verified by con" 
suiting a map of Cuba, the pacification of the island is far advanced? 
but it is not yet complete and definitive. Nevertheless, the civil and 
military authorities of Spain, reciprocating the good faith with which 
the capitulators of Camaguey fulfilled the terms of their capitulation on 
the day after they had defiled in Puerto Principe before the general-in- 
chief of the army, that is to say, the 1st day of March, in strict fulfill- 
ment of article 1 of said capitulation, issued a decree of the same date, 
which was published in the Havana Gazette of the 3d, and which the 
honorable Secretary of State will find in Appendix E. By this decree 
it is provided, that the island of Cuba shall be represented in the Cor- 
tes of the kingdom at their next session; that its government and local 
administration shall be modeled according to the municipal and provin- 



GOVERNMENT OF THE ISLAND OF CUBA. 7 

cial laws of the peninsula, as they are in force in Porto Eico, and that 
the government of His Majesty shall be requested to introduce in the 
island of Cuba, in the manner prescribed in article 89 of the constitution 
of the monarchy, the other laws which have been, or which may hereafter- 
be, promulgated in the peninsula. In virtue of article 1 of the afore- 
said decree, the undersigned thinks that, according to the census of its 
population, Cuba will be entitled to at least twenty deputies in the Cor- 
tes, in addition to the senators chosen by the people according to the 
electoral law, and to those whom it already has of its own right or by 
virtue of royal appointment. 

In the decree in question the phrase is to be noted with which its pre- 
amble begins: "The war being now near its end" (not a regular war 
in the sense in which it is defined by international law, but an intestine 
struggle, civil contest, or armed rebellion, which, in the military parlance 
of the Spanish language, is commonly called war) ; which phrase shows 
that said military authorities do not consider the contest to be entirely 
at an end, although its termination is very near. The first sentence in 
the second paragraph of the same preamble is also noteworthy, in which 
it is declared that, had it not been for this contest, "Cuba would long 
since have enjoyed, according to the constitution of the state, the ad- 
vantages which must necessarily accrue to her from a possible assimila- 
tion to the peninsula," which shows that the prevailing sentiment in 
Spain is in favor of treating Cuba as Porto Rico has been treated ; that 
is to say, like a Spanish province, although she could not grant to re- 
bellious subjects what they demand with arms in their hands,, namely, 
absolute independence during a time of trial for the mother country, 
nor even what she was always ready to grant them voluntarily, and 
what she has now granted, at a time of greater prosperity for herself, 
to them, now that they have repented and sued for peace, which is an 
act of generosity and a guarantee of reconciliation. 

A decree of the general-in-chief of the army of operations in the island 
of Cuba was also inserted in the Havana Gazette of the 3d. 

This was issued at Puerto Principe on the 10th of March, and will be 
found iu appendix F. It guarantees the freedom which was offered in 
article 3, of the capitulation of all slaves who were in the ranks of the 
insurgents on the 10th day of February, and who have surrendered or 
who shall surrender before the 31st day of the current month of March. 

Articles 5, 6, 7, and 8 of the capitulation have been fulfilled already, 
or are now in course of fulfillment, toward all who are willing to take 
advantage of their benefits. Article 4 requires no immediate action, 
and article 2 has always constituted the distinguishing trait of the 
Spanish policy in Cuba. Forgetfulness of the past, pardon of political 
crimes, release of property embargoed for the same cause, mitigation of 
the effects of these embargoes as regards the innocent members of the 
families of those whose property has been embargoed, and even the fur- 
nishing of means of subsistence to repentant rebels — all this has been 
frequently offered or grauted by the government and authorities of 
Spain from the time of the decree of amnesty, issued on the 12th of Jan- 
uary, 1869, by the governor, captain-general of the island, Don Domingo 
Dulce, who was sent by the revolutionary government of 1868 to estab- 
lish in Cuba the same liberties and franchises that were enjoyed by the 
peninsula, until the royal decree of October 27, 1877, by which the un- 
improved public lands, certain forests belonging to the state, and town 
lands not used, are ordered to be divided among various classes, viz : 

1st. Licentiates and volunteers, who have been mobilized or who have 
taken part in a battle. 



8 GOVERNMENT OF THE ISLAND OF CUBA. 

2d. Inhabitants of the towns of the island who have remained loyal 
to the government and who have suffered considerable losses of prop- 
erty in consequence of the war. 

3d. Persons who have voluntarily siwrendered to the authorities and 
forces of the government. 

The reproduction and analysis of all these general acts, and many 
other private ones of pardon, clemency, and generosity, would render 
this note interminable, which had no other object, as remarked at the 
beginning, than to satisfy the desire of the honorable Secretary of State 
to become accurately acquainted with the present situation of Cuba, but 
which the undersigned, in his wish to correct false impressions which 
have been circulated by the conspirators against Spain in this country, 
has thought proper to extend sufficiently to indicate succinctly the 
policy of Spain in Cuba and the causes that have given rise to the re- 
cent events. Although the government of Spain does not recognize the 
right of any foreign power to interfere in the internal affairs of that 
country, it values too highly the opinion of the sensible people of the 
United States and the friendship of its government for its representative 
at Washington to neglect an opportunity like the one now offered to 
present in their true aspect the acts, intentions, and constant policy of 
Spain in her relations with the island of Cuba. 

If it were necessary, or the honorable Secretary of State should desire 
it, the undersigned would amplify and prove by ineaus of trustworthy 
documents the assertions which he has just made, and he proposes 
shortly to show that the only obstacle that can now retard, not abso- 
lutely prevent, the complete pacification of Cuba, is the war-cry and the 
false promises of immediate aid which are once more sent from New 
York by the Cuban conspirators, who urge in public meetings the con- 
tinuation of the struggle which is now so near its end. And it is a re- 
markable fact that in this struggle, by a sad fatality for the liberators 
of Cuba, a fatality which would not escape, and which has not escaped, 
the observation of the American people and the perspicacity of its en- 
lightened press, foreigners have been its principal leaders — those who 
have most zealously maintained it, and who have most distinguished 
themselves in it. Jordan and Eeeve, Americans ; Maximo Gomez and 
Modesto Diaz, Dominicans ; Eoloff, a Pole ; Caoba and Maceo, the one 
an African and the other a semi African ; Prado, the captor of the Moc- 
tezuma, a Peruvian ; and finally, not to mention any more names, Gon- 
zales, a Mexican, who was deputed by the revolutionary committee of 
Camagiiey to announce the dissolution of the legislative chamber and 
of the government of the republic to its representatives in the United 
States. Even the diplomatic commissioner of Cuba abroad, Echerarria, 
who less than a month ago proclaimed throughout the length and breadth 
of this great country, by a circular telegram from the Washington agency 
of the Associated Press, that the news of the submission of the greater 
part of the insurgent leaders was false, and that they would accept no 
terms not based upon the recognition of Cuban independence — even that 
diplomatic agent, whom the honorable Committee on Foreign Eelations 
of the House of Eepresentatives of the United States, having charge of 
Cuban affairs, received and listened to with interest in the belief that 
he was a son of Cuba, is no Cuban at all, but a Venezuelan. 

If an insurrection composed of such antagonistic elements as the 

Latin, African, Mongolian, and Anglo-Saxon races, led on by officers of 

all known nationalities, could have triumphed, the confusion of tongues 

-at the tower of Babel, and the memorable catastrophe which took place 

n the formerly French portion of the island of Santo Domingo, would 



GOVERNMENT OF THE ISLAND OF CUBA. 9 

have been cast into the shade by the spectacle which victorious, free, 
and Africanized Cuba would have preseuted to the civilized world. 

The undersigned avails himself of this occasion to renew to the Hon. 
William M. Evarts the assurances of his most distinguished considera- 
tion. 

ANTONIO MANTILLA. 



No. 4. 

Mr. Mantilla to Mr. Evarts. 

Legacion de Espana en Washington, 

Washington, April 3, 1878. 

On the preceding day the undersigned received a telegram from the 
governor-general of Cuba, to the effect that, after much hesitation, 
Vicente Garcia has refused, to make a capitulation. Besides him, as the 
governor-general observes, there are remaining in resistance to the 
government in Cuba only Maceo, in the neighborhood of Las Tunas, and 
Mayary. In the department of Las Villas, the Central, and in part of 
the Oriental, there is the most complete tranquillity. 

The uniform tendency of the semi-official telegrams from Havana, 
published in the journals of New York on the 28th ult., is to confirm 
the news that the local disturbances in the eastern and central portions 
of the island, which have so persistently and unhappily afflicted Cuba 
during the past ten years, have subsided, and that good order is gen- 
erally reappearing. 

This is substantially the same condition of affairs that was exhibited 
by the undersigned iu his note of the 23d March to the Department of 
State, in compliance with the invitation verbally expressed by the Hon. 
Mr. Evarts on the 21st. 

The inconvenience and peril of this imperfect condition of internal 
administration in the eastern portion of the Island of Cuba would be 
really unimportant to Spain or to the authorities of that island were it 
not for the relation which such isolated disorder bears to a busy nest of 
Cuban, Central American, and South American conspirators in the city 
of New York. As is well known to the distinguished Secretary of State, 
the three prominent agents of the so-called Republic of Cuba in that 
city (Messieurs Aldama, Echeverria, and Sanguili) abandoned their 
illegal functions when the officials in Cuba of that (so-called) "Re- 
public" recently threw aside their absurd pretensions to constitute 
a government, and confessed that no such government existed. The 
city of New York has been, since 1869, the real fountain and arsenal 
of the insurrection in Cuba. Its newspapers were there. Its leading 
generals were there, and are yet there. There was its financial and 
military base of operations. Eesistance to the constituted authority of 
Spain in Cuba was kept alive in the eastern part of that island, from 
1869 to 1878, chiefly by representations that the powerful government 
of the United States would in the end, and very soon, come to the aid of 
the revolt, as against Spain. By various devices, bonds of the so-called 
" Republic of Cuba," payable whenever that island attained her indepen- 
dence of Spain, were sold in the United States (in violation of public law, 
because not bought as a bona-fide investment of money), and the sums re- 
ceived therefor used in the city of New York to support the revolt in that 



10 GOVERNMENT OF THH ISLAND OF CUBA. 

city, and also to fit out military enterprises from the shores of the United 
States against Cuba. The large Cuban immigration in Florida aud in 
New York, chiefly occupied in the manufacture of leaf-tobacco for vari- 
ous uses, was coerced or deluded, for many years, into contributing a 
portion of its slender earnings to keep alive the Cuban revolt until the 
United States saw fit to come to its rescue, either by belligerent recog- 
nition or in some other way. The pressure of what is known as the 
" hard times" in the United States (and which has been so generally 
felt all over Europe) has thrown a great many of these frightened or 
deluded Cubans out of employment altogether, or has made it im- 
possible for them to have any surplus earnings left, after paying their 
necessary expenses. These, aud other causes, left the conspirators in 
New York without funds with which to manufacture what was called a 
" public opinion " in the United States, or to send military enterprises 
to Cuba; and therefore, of necessity, the revolt in the eastern aud cen- 
tral portions of the island straightway began to expire. 

There are in the United States, and particularly in New York, both 
Cubans and Americans who seek for their own selfish purposes to re- 
constitute the insurrection in New York, and fill the places vacated by 
Aldama, Echeverria, and Sanguili. There are Cuban journals printed 
in New York in the Spanish language, which even now persist in pro- 
claiming the necessity of continual resistance in Cuba, of assailing the 
authority of Spain in that island, and in urging the importance of send- 
ing as soon as possible military succor to the roving bands of discontented 
negroes, Chinese, escaped Cuban criminals, and deserters from the army 
of Spam, who wander about, or in the mountains of the extreme oriental 
part of the island. Public meetings are held in New York with the 
same object. These Cuban newspapers and these public meetings or- 
ganize committees to receive subscriptions of money. They ask the 
former agents in New York of the so-called Eepublic of Cuba to sur- 
render to them the funds and other property * * * * of the so- 
called Eepublic, which may be in their possession. They publicly solicit 
the assistance of certain South American governments. What very 
many, and indeed a great part of these conspirators are doing in New 
York, is in palpable violation of the neutrality laws of the United States ; 
but the undersigned has not thus far deemed it necessary to formally 
invite the attention of the President of the United States to these acts, 
because the undersigned has believed that these acts would be harmless 
in their character. 

The Department of State may be assured that the undersigned will 
cause to be transmitted, for the information of the President, the first 
official news which is received that the Cuban insurrection is at an end 
in the eastern part of the Island of Cuba and the city of New York. 

The Secretary of State must have observed how promptly and liber- 
erally Spain offered pardon and immunity to her erring Cuban subjects 
on the first intimation of a desire or willingness on their part to throw 
down their rude arms and submit to the authority of their legitimate 
and friendly King, like all other Spanish subjects. During these many 
years Spain has held the same attitude of pardon and forgiveness, if 
her misguided subjects in Cuba, under the control of wicked and selfish 
leaders in the United States, would cease resistance and obey the laws 
of Spain, as Porto Rico obeys them, but their leaders in New York 
would not permit such surrender, and the unhappy revolt has therefore 
continued until very recently with no benefit to any one. 



GOVERNMENT OF THE ISLAND OF CUBA. 11 

The President of the United States may be assured that Spain 
stands ready to-day to promote the most liberal measures of am- 
nesty to all those who in good faith abandon armed resistance to 
her authority. Certainly the United States almost as much as Spain 
herself must desire to see the island again pursuing the paths of good 
order, contentment, prosperity, and happiness. Cuba is an ancient pos- 
session of Spain, and Spain will vindicate the rightfulness and benefi- 
cence of that possession. Cuba lies at the doors of the United States. 
Her products imported into the United States pay a proportion of the 
customs revenue of this powerful Republic of the West, which too few 
people understand or appreciate. It is to be hoped that, with a revival 
of good order and industry in that prolific and beautiful island, the 
commercial relations between her, as a province of Spain represented 
in the Spanish cortes at Madrid, and the United States may be drawn 
closer and closer, to the mutual and abiding interest of Americans and 
Cubans. To promote this peaceful object is a work to which the under- 
signed is constantly reminded by his sovereign that he must dedicate 
his best efforts. 

The undersigned avails himself of this occasion to renew to the hon- 
orable William M. Evarts the assurances of his most distinguished con- 
sideration. 

ANTONIO MANTILLA. 



No. 5. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Mantilla. 

Department of State, 

Washington, April 10, 1878. 
Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 
23d ultimo, regarding the present political condition of the Island of 
Cuba, and to observe, at the same time, that the statements made by 
you will be attentively read and carefully considered. 

Accept, sir, a renewed assurance of my distinguished consideration. 

F. W. SEWAED, 

Acting Secretary. 
Seiior Don Antonio Mantilla, &c, &c, &c. 



No. 6. 

Mr. Rail to Mr. Seward. 

No. 663.] United States Consulate-General, 

Havana, February 16, 1878. 
Sir : For a month, at least, previous to the recent festivities, which 
were ordered to take place in the island in honor of the marriage of the 
King of Spain, it was currently reported that, during the festivities, 
peace with the Cuban insurgents would be announced. These reports 
were not of an official character, and were not generally credited, although 
it is well known that for a long time General Martinez Campos has been 
making great efforts to bring about some arrangement with the insur- 
gents whereby they might be induced to lay down their arms. 



12 GOVERNMENT OF THE ISLAND OF CUBA. 

On the 13th instant there were received from the interior of the island 
numerous printed supplements, containing what purport to be and are 
beyond a doubt the bases agreed upon between General Martinez Cam- 
pos and the so-called "Central Junta of Camaguey," for a treaty of 
peace, the same having been communicated by Martinez Campos, by 
telegraph, to General Figueroa, commanding the Villas department, and 
by the latter transmitted to the several military commanders of Trinidad, 
Cienfuegos, Eemedios, Sagua, and Colon, in each of which places the 
terms were published and circulated. It caused some surprise that they 
were not, as is alleged, communicated to Havana, and here published in 
the usual official form in the Gaceta; the versions which have since 
appeared in the Havana papers having been taken from those of the 
interior. 

On the 14th instant, however, the Diario published a telegram from 
its correspondent at headquarters, as follows : 

Peace in the island is a fact about to be realized. Maximo Gomez, president of the Cuban 
Republic, the chamber and government, in accord with the Carnageyan forces, are at work 
to establish peace, &c. 

This telegram, confirming to a certain extent the news of the previous 
day, set at rest many doubts which had existed as to the authenticity 
of the statements from the interior. It caused some surprise and many 
comments that it should contain a recognition of the "Cuban republic, 
chambers, and government," hitherto styled bandits, incendiaries, &c, &c. 

The terms of the proposed peace are worthy of note. Article 1st pro- 
vides that the Island of Cuba shall have the same concessions enjoyed 
by the island of Puerto Eico. With the exception that the latter sends 
representatives to the Spanish Cortes, it is generally understood that the 
two islands have the same form of government and administration. 

Article 2 is considered ambiguous, and doubts are expressed in refer- 
ence to it, whether it might not be construed to prevent the return of 
those who are absent from the island, but who are not undergoing penal- 
ties, as also whether it will embrace the unconditional restoration of 
embargoed and confiscated property. 

Article 3d will beyond doubt prove very unsatisfactory to planters and 
slave-owners. 

On the evening of the 14th General Jovellar, accompanied by General 
Figueroa and other officials, left for Puerto Principe. It is well under- 
stood that his departure has reference to pending negotiations with the 
insurgents. 

I further transmit an article from the Diario, of the 14th, which I 
doubt not will be found of interest. 

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

HENEY C. HALL. 

Hon. F. W. Seward, 

Assistant Secretary of State, Washington. 

Inclosures. 

1. Proposed bases of peace negotiations with the Cuban insurgents. 

2. Translation of above. 

3. Copy of telegram published in the Diario of 14 February, 1878. 
4-5. Article and translation from the Diario of the above date. 



GOVERNMENT OF THE ISLAND OF CUBA. 13 

[Inclosure No. 2 with dispatch No. 603. 1 

Havana, February \6th, 1878. 
[Translation.] 

MILITARY COM.MANDANCY OF COLON. 

His excellency the commandant general of the Villas, by telegram of this date from 
Trinidad, states the following : 

I have this moment received from his excellency, the general-in-chief, the following tele- 
gram : 

Z AN JON, February 10, 1878. 

I have accorded with the central junta of the Camaguey, which has substituted govern- 
ment and chambers for making peace, the following basis : 

Article 1. Concession to the island of Cuba the same political privileges, organic and 
administrative, enjoyed by the island of Puerto Rico. 

2. Oblivion of the past, as regards political offences committed since the year 1868 up to 
the present, and the liberty of those under trial or who are fulfilling sentences within or out- 
side of the island. A general pardon to the deserters from the Spanish army, without dis- 
tinction of nativity ; this clause to be extended to all those who have taken any part, directly 
or indirectly, in the revolutionary movement. 

3. Freedom to the slaves and Asiatic colonists now in the insurrectionary ranks. 

4. No person who in virtue of this capitulation recognizes and remains within the author- 
ity of the Spanish Government shall be compelled to render any service of war, so long as 
peace is not established in all the territory. 

5. Every person who desires to leave the island shall be at liberty to do so, and he shall 
be furnished by the Spanish Government with the means therefor, without entering a town, 
if he should so desire it. 

6. The capitulation of each force shall take place outside the towns, where the arms, im- 
plements of war, shall be laid down. 

7. The general-in-chief of the Spanish army, in order to facilitate the means for uniting 
the other departments (in this convention) shall make free all the means of communication, 
by sea and land, that he can dispose of. 

8. The agreement made with the central junta shall be considered as general, and with- 
out special restrictions, for all the departments of the island which accept these proposi- 
tions. 

I make it known to your excellency, for the information of yourself and of the troops under 
your command, with the understanding that operations shall be suspended, the troops being 
restricted to acting upon the defensive and to escorting convoys. 

In the event of any of our forces falling in with the enemy they will make known to him 
these bases without firing upon him. 

Your excellency will also order that experienced guides shall go out immediately with 
these instructions and make them known to the chiefs of the opposing forces, until the com- 
missioners of the central junta for that purpose, who have this jurisdiction, shall arrive. 

By order of his excellency the general-in-chief. 

The chief of staff. 

PRENDERGAST. 

Which I have the satisfaction of communicating to your highness for information and 
order that it may be published by the newspapers of that locality by means of extras or other 
means which the zeal of your highness may suggest, in order that such an important event 
may become known to the inhabitants of that jurisdiction, and remitting printed copies also 
to the chiefs of columns in operations for its greater publicity. 

FIGUEROA. 

All of which I have the satisfaction to make public for the general information of the loyal 
inhabitants of this jurisdiction. 
Colon, iltli February, 1878. 

JUAN DOMINGO, 
Colonel, Military Commandant. 



14 GOVERNMENT OF THE ISLAND OF CUBA. 

flnclosure No. 3 with dispatch No. Gfj'*-] 

Havana, February 16, 1'8?8. 

[Translation.! 

[From the "Diario de la Marina " of 14th February, 1877.] 

We have just received the following telegram from the correspondent of the press, at head- 
quarters, which says more than we could say in commenting upon it : 

"Santa Cruz, \9.th February. 
"Director del ' Diario de la Marina,' Habana 

" The peace of the island is now a fact about to be realized. The president of the Cuban 
Republic. Maximo Gomez, chamber and government in accord with the force of the Cama- 
guey, are at work to realize peace. Also, in the Villas and Oriental departments. For those 
two departments commissions of important chiefs have left with that object. Hostilities 
suspended in all the island. 

"FLORES." 



[Inclosure No. 5 with dispatch No. 663. J 

Havana, February 16, 1878, 
[Translation.] 

[From the Diario de la Marina of 14th February, 1878.] 

WAR AND PEACE. 

• The present situation of the island is about to undergo a change. Generals Martinez Cam- 
pos and Jovellar, who contributed so efficiently to the pacification of the peninsula, in all 
probability (and which we hope may soon become a palpable reality) will have at last been 
able to break the hundred heads of the hydra of the war which has caused so much desola- 
tion ; the one with his indefatigable activity, with his conciliatory character, patience and 
constancy, the other with his tact for command, with his determination to re-enforce the ac- 
tion of the former in providing him as far as was humanly possible, with all the resources 
he needed ; with his well known tolerance, his affability, his sound judgment, he having by 
mere force of his skill, been able to quiet excited spirits (for there are wars no less prejudicial 
than those of battle fields), and in maintaining complete tranquillity among the populations 
of all the cities. 

To the government of His Majesty which, having reposed its confidence in these illustrious 
men, and having permitted them to act without placing any obstacle in their progress, as it 
would have done if it had pretended, in the great crisis through which they have passed, to 
direct absolutely the issues, will have had no insignificant part in the great result which we 
trust before long to see announced officially. At times in governing but little, more govern- 
ing is accomplished, for the reason that all the details cannot be appreciated from a great dis- 
tance. 

The two purposes which both generals undertor>k to carry out were to quiet excitement, 
time having demonstrated that it creates rather than removes difficulties, and in vain can it 
be expected that the passions can accomplish what exclusively pertains to reason and judg- 
ment; the other to subjugate the enemy, not altogether by violence and the shedding of 
blood, but with benignity combined with energy, with the proper distribution of troops, re- 
establishing discipline in all its rigor wherein it might be suspected of having relaxed, were 
difficult, very difficult undertakings, although there are some views which do not cause the 
same effect when near as when seen at a distance, while the most admirable works of art 
are not appreciated so much when just created as after a lapse of time and the mind can 
judge of them dispassionately without the preventions of sympathy or antipathy caused by 
the envy or emulation of contemporary artists. 

This is what our judgment, the result of a long series of observation, tells us, because W'e 
have always preferred above all things to be eminently practical. 

The glory from these happy results which we definitely look for, as our estimable col- 
league the Voz de Cuba in its well-reasoned article, says, pertains in a great measure to 
Generals Jovellar and Martinez Campos, for among all the services that can be rendered to 
a country the greatest of all is that of restoring to it peace ; because war is the cause of 
every calamity which can sadden and afflict a people. 

The poet Aristophanes has represented war under the figure of a gigantic monster, armed 
with a pestle and mortar in which he pulverizes not only cities but their inhabitants. A 
French author calls war "the sister of death and the law of the robbers," and in all cen- 
turies it has been the horror of nations. Nations need peace, because they can live only by 
labor and industry, and there is no heart so insensible as not to be horrified by its desola- 
tions, by the sinister lights of its conflagrations, and its blood and carnage. 



GOVERNMENT OF THE ISLAND OF CUBA. 15 

Peace is the symbol of order, and without order all is confusion ; without peace it is impos- 
sible that public interests be developed, nor can any measure for increasing the public 
wealth be carried out. War absorbs everything ; it consumes the very elements that nur- 
ture it. 

What would be the nourishing condition of Cuba if the immense sums that have been 
spent in sustaining the strife, which for more than nine years has disturbed us, without ex- 
cluding what it has cost the enemy, however limited his resources, if those sums had been 
invested in works of public utility and in the development of our industries? What would 
be the aspect of Havana and of the principal cities of the island ? 

When wars have for their object the removal of obstacles to the prosperity of a decaying 
country, or for bettering the condition of the needy classes if over them weighs the iron 
arm of indigence, they have au honest pretext ; but when that impulse controls, the works 
which represent the labor of centuries are not destroyed. 

Only ambition, the negation of every generous impulse, and the most abominable cruelty 
would influence the minds of those who would not rejoice before the proximity of peace. 

And it is a proof of what we say, that Turkey, which has given ostensible proofs of hero- 
ism in the war of the Titans she has sustained, prefers the humiliation of defeat to the con- 
tinuation of a series of disasters, which in the end, could be no otber than the complete 
destruction of all her territory and the loss of life and of her political existence in the con- 
cert of nations. 

Welcome, then, peace above all, and with peace the greatest difficulties can be overcome 
tranquilly. 

Those whom Divine providence has selected as the instruments of His omnipotent will to 
restore to us that great blessing, merit well of the country and the pure and disinterested 
love of all the good. 



No. 7. 

Mr. Hall to Mr. Seward. 

No. 6G4.] United States Consulate- General, 

Havana, February 23, 1878. 

Hon. F. W. Seward, 

Assistant Secretary of State, Washington : 
Sir: With my dispatch No. 003 of the 10th instant, I transmitted a 
copy and translation of the proposed basis of negotiations for peace 
between Spain and the Cuban insurgents. I stated therein, that these 
terms had not then been published officially in the Havana papers. On 
the 19th instant, however, the same were published in a supplement of 
tbe Gaceta, and again, on the 20th in the paper itself as per copy 
and translation herewith. The authenticity of the document being fully 
established, I thought proper to advise the department by the cable, as 
follows : 

Havana, February 19, 1878. 

Secretary of State, Washington: 

The bases of negotiations for peace and surrender of insurgent forces are published here 
to-day officially. There appears no doubt whatever that peace will be realized. 

HALL. 

I am further informed by the consul at Santiago de Cuba, that Maxi- 
mo Gomez and the two other insurgent chiefs had arrived at that place, 
on the 10th instant, en route for the insurgent camps in that depart- 
ment with the purpose of inducing the forces, still in arms, to accept 
the proposed bases. There is but little doubt that they will be success- 
ful and that ere long peace will be fully established. 

In my dispatch No. 003, I had occasion to refer to the dissatisfaction 
created among planters and slave-owners by the 3d article of the pro- 
posed bases; it was asserted that General Jovellar's departure for Puerto 
Principe was with special reference to that article, the members of the 



16 GOVERNMENT OF THE ISLAND OF CUBA. 

casino, it was said also, were to have an extraordinary meeting with 
the view of expressing their opinions, which were understood to be in 
opposition to the proposed terms, and especially to the 3d article of 
the bases. But whatever may have been their original intention, the 
result of the meeting was the transmission of congratulatory telegrams 
to Spain and to General Martinez Campos, and a general manifestation 
of hearty approval of all his efforts in obtaining a termination so satis- 
factory of existing difficulties. 

In connection with the foregoing, I beg to invite your attention to 
an article under, the head of "La Paz," published in the Voz de Cuba 
of the 19th instant, in which it is claimed that the surrender of the in- 
surgents is the result of their own motion, and not of any proposal em- 
anated from General Martinez Campos. The article referred to makes 
some comparisons which are also worthy of attention, although quite 
out of place. I regret that I am not able to furnish a full translation 
by this mail. 

It is also known that, by the steamer leaving to-day for New Tork, 
an authorized agent of tbe central committee of the Cuban Government 
has taken passage for the purpose of conferring with the Cuban junta 
in the United States. 

I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

HE^RY C. HALL, 

Consul- General. 

fluclostire No. 1 with dispatch No. 664.] 

Havana, February 23, 1878. 

GACETA EXTRAORDINARY. 

Tuesday, February 19, 1878. 
General Government of the Island of Cuba : 

For the information and satisfaction of the public, there are published the following bases 
conceded by his excellency the general-iu-chief in accord with this government, for the ca- 
pitulation of the forces of the insurrection still in arms. These bases are a sure guarantee 
of an immediate peace, as glorious for the illustrious general who has had the direction of 
the war, for the army, as honorable and generous for the capitulating forces, and necessary, 
above all, for the country, which by favor of these terms will be able, after long years of 
perturbation, to reach the termination of its extraordinary sacrifices, and to dedicate anew 
the whole of its productive forces to the development of its paralyzed prosperity. 

BASES. 

Article!. Concession to the island of Cuba the same political privileges, organic and 
administrative, enjoyed by the island of Puerto Rico. 

2. Oblivion of tbe past as regards political offences committed since the year 1866 up to 
the present, and the liberty of those under trial or who are fulfilling sentences within or 
outside the island. A general pardon to the deserters from tbe Spanish army, without dis- 
tinction of nativity. This clause to be extended to all those who have taken any part, 
directly or indirectly, in the revolutionary movement. 

3. Freedom to the slaves and Asiatic colonists now in the insurrectionary ranks. 

4. No person, who in virtue of this capitulation recognizes and remains within the 
authority of the Spanish Government, shall be compelled to render any service of war, so 
long as peace is not established in all the territory. 

5. Every person who desires to leave the island shall be at liberty to do so, and he shall 
be furnished by the Spanish Government with the means therefor, without entering a town 
if he should so desire it. 

6. The capitulation of each force shall take place outside the towns, where the arms, im- 
plements of war, shall be laid down. 

7. The general-in-chief of the Spanish army, in order to facilitate the means for uniting 
the other departments (in this convention), shall make free all the means of communication, 
by sea and land that he can dispose of. 

8. The agreement made with the central junta, shall be considered as general and with- 
out special restrictions for all the departments of the island which accept these propositions. 

Habana, 19th February, 1878. 

JOVELLAR. 



GOVERNMENT OF THE ISLAND OF CUBA. 17 

No. 8. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Hall. 

No. 440.] Department of State, 

Washington, February 20, 1878. 
To Henry C. Hall, Esq., 

Consul- General of the United States, Havana, Cuba : 
Sir : I have to inform you of the receipt of your telegram of the 10th 
inst, of which the following is a copy : " Secretary of State, Washing- 
ton : The bases of negotiations for peace and surrender of insurgent forces 
are published today officially. There appears no doubt, whatever, that 
peace will be realized. Hall." 

I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

F. W. SEWARD, 
Assistant Secretary. 



No. 9. 

Mr. Hall to 2Ir. Seward. 

No. 006. J United States Consulate-General, 

Havana, March 2, 1878. 
Sir : With reference to my dispatches Nos. 603 and 004, of the 10th 
and 23d ultimo, I now transmit copies and translations of several 
official reports of the surrender of portions of the Cuban insurgent 
forces at Puerto Principe, Sancti Spiritus, La Trocha, and other places 
in the central department of the island. From these statements it ap- 
pears that, on the 28th ultimo, the Cuban insurgent forces cf the Cama- 
guey district, or a part of them, surrendered at Puerto Principe to 
General Martinez Campos; their number is not given in the telegram, 
but I have been informed by General Jovellar that about one thousand 
men, with the central committee or junta (comprising about all that 
remains to represent the late Cuban Government), passed in review and 
were disbanded. On the 1st instant, yesterday, other bodies of the 
insurgents, to the number of eight hundred men surrendered at the 
Trocha, and in Saucti Spiritus. Some of the forces scattered through 
the Villas department, it is said, are being collected prior to a final sur- 
render and disbandment. It would seem, therefore, that the forces of 
the Villas and central departments, comprising the half or more of 
the late insurrectionary district, have accepted the terms of reconcilia- 
tion, and that in those departments, at least, the insurrection has 
virtually terminated. There still remain the forces of the oriental de- 
partment which have not yet been heard from, but it is not probable 
that these forces will hold out after the surrender of the main body, and 
in fact of the very nucleus of the insurrection. I respectfully call your 
attention to the important decrees published in the Gaceta Oflcial of 
this date, and of which 1 will forward translations in my next. The 
first of these decrees delares that the island of Cuba shall have repre- 
sentation in the Spanish Cortes on the same conditions as those exist- 
ing in Puerto Rico. It provides also for the establishment of the same 
provincial and municipal laws now ruling in Spain, and in Puerto Rico. 
The second decree, which is in conformity with article 3d of the bases 
S. Ex. 79 2 



18 GOVERNMENT OF THE ISLAND OF CUBA. 

of capitulation of the insurgent forces, provides for the freedom of the 
slaves who were in the insurrection, on the 10th February ultimo, and 
who shall present themselves in any form to the authorities, or to the 
troops of tbe government before the 31st instant. 
1 have, &c, 

HENEY C. HALL, 

Consul- General. 



[Inclosure. — Trail slation. ] 

Frcm the Voz de Cuba, of 2d March, 1678. 

INTERESTING NEAVS. 

Our readers will have seen in the morning edition the telegram dated 28th February, 
sent us by the correspondent of the press in campaign from Puerto Principe; the late hour 
in which we received it gave us time only to insert it, and we omitted our comments in or- 
der that our subscribers might receive, in time, the grateful news it contained. When our 
number wa? already in press, we received from the general government, for publication, the 
following telegram, confirming officially all that an active correspondent had sent us. 

Captaincy-General of the ever-faithful Isle of Cuba Staff. 

His excellency the general-in-chief of the army in operations, in a telegram dated 
Puerto Principe, 3 p. m. to-day, says to his excellency the captain-general the following: 

"At 2 p. m. of to-day the surrender of the Cuban forces and arms at this jurisdiction has 
commenced. Published by order of H. E. for general information. Habana, 28th Feb- 
ruary, 1878. 

" The brigadier chief of staff: PEDRO DE CUENCA." 

The capitulation has been carried out on the day announced in the Camaguey and in 
the Trocha ; and peace, in those two vast departments, is a reality. As can be inferred 
from the telegraphic dispatch of our correspondent, more than a thousand persons, four 
hundred of them armed, have presented themselves in the Camaguey, and in the official 
dispatch it is said that at their head were the chiefs and deputies. We do not know the 
number of the forces which have laid down their arms in the camp " Ojo de Agua," but it 
is to be presumed that the number is, in all, about the same as that of the forces of the 
Camaguey. The following from the dispatch of our correspondent, "The chiefs who have 
not surrendered embark for foreign ports to-day," indicate, in our judgment, that there may 
have been some chief who has not yet accepted the bases and has not wished to remain in 
the island ; whichever way it may be, his departure, which will have taken place at this 
hour, puts an end to all further interior dissidence. In regard to the Oriental department, 
it is to be expected that we will soon receive news of the capitulation of the forces therein, 
as by this time conferences will have taken place between their chief and the commissioners 
ad hoc to conclude it. The pacification of all the island will soon, therefore, be a consum- 
mated reality, as it already is in the Central and the Villas departments. May God 
grant that, with peace, Cuba may enter upon a new era of prosperity and happiness. 

TELEGRAMS RECEIVED AT THE CAPTAINCY-GENERAL. 

Sancti Spiritus, 1st March, 1878. 
To-day the forces of Jimenez and Sanchez, numbering 425 men, 71 women, and 30 chil- 
dren, have surrendered their arms at Ojo de Agua, near this place. To-day or to-morrow 
Lieutenant-Colonel Arias should arrive with the object of surrendering at once, and of which, 
I will report to your excellency. The forces ot the Remedios, at the orders of Carrillo, are 
collecting at Ciego Potrero, and will surrender on the 5th. The forces of Jose Gomez 
should surrender to-day at the Trocha, according to the order of Jimenez. 

Santa Clara, 1st March. 

To the chief of the battalion of Leon at Cumanayagua : 

More than 4( men, with 6 chiefs, among them Pancho Jimenez and Serafin Sanchez, 
laid down their arms yesterday afternoon at Ojo de Agua. 

HOLGUIN, Is* March. 
Colonel Dominguez retained to-day, having collected those arrived at Guabajanuy, of all 
which he has reported. He brought 57 men, besides 22 others armed, 22 women, and 35 
minors. 



GOVERNMENT OF THE ISLAND OF CUBA. 19 

No. 10. 

Mr. Hall to Mr. Seward. 

No. 667.] United States Consulate-General, 

Havana, March 2, 1878. 
Sir : Referring to my No. GOG, I have the honor to transmit herewith 
copies and translations of two important decrees which appear in the 
Gaceta of to-day. 

The first of these decrees provides for the representation of Cuba in 
the next Cortes of Spain, upon the same conditions which are now ap- 
plied to the island of Puerto Rico ; it also provides for the extension to 
Cuba of the municipal and provincial law of the 2d of October, 1877, 
now in force in Spain and in Puerto Rico. 

The second decree or edict, issued by General Martinez Campos, de- 
clares that all the slaves, of both sexes, found in the insurrection on the 
10th February ultimo, and who shall present themselves to the civil or 
military authorities of the government before the 31st day of March, 
1878, shall be free and provided with vicinage certificates to that effect. 
It provides also for indemnity, in due time, to those owners who have 
remained loyal to the government during the insurrection. 
I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

HENRY C. HALL, 

Consul- General. 
Hon. P. W. Seward, 

Assistant Secretary of State, Washington. 



[Inclosure No. 1 with dispatch No. 667.] 

Havana, March 2, 1876. 

[From the Gracete de la Habana of March 2, 1878.] 
GENERAL GOVERNMENT OF THE ISLAND OF CUBA. 

The war, which for a period of more than nine years has demanded the preferent atten- 
tion, subordinating to its vital interest every thought and every measure of the government, 
being near its termination and peace being happilyinaugurated upon conditions of concord 
in the future, the opportune moment has arrived, at last for carrying out known purposes, 
which, on account of perturbations, have been postponed, and consequently to introduce 
into the present organic political and administrative system of the island all those re- 
forms which without prejudice to the unity and prerogatives of the central authority may 
facilitate, by means of the action of popular corporations disencumbered, within the circle 
of loyality, the complete development of municipal and of provincial organization. 

A long time ago, but for the war, in consonance with the provisions in the constitution of 
the state, Cuba would have enjoyed the advantages which, necessarily, assimilation as far 
as possible with the peninsula would have given her ; and, aside from certain reforms of 
social character which are by circumstances subject to special laws and to definitive solu- 
tions of profound study in everything, relating to representation in the Cortes, the island 
would have been in a situation analogous to Puerto Rico. 

The only opposing obstacle being removed, it becomes natural and logical to recognize 
the administration in the sense referred to, and to invite to the participation of public life, in 
behalf of the country, all the constitutive elements of the new institutions. 

In accord, therefore, with his excellency the general-in-chief, and authorized by the 
government of His Majesty the King, I issue the following 



Article 1. Commencing with the next coming legislature, the island of Cuba shall have 
its representation in the Cortes of the Kingdom upon the same terms with Puerto Rico and 
in accordance with its population. 



20 GOVERNMENT OF THE ISLAND OF CUBA. 

Article 2. The provincial and municipal laws of the peninsula of 2d October, 1877, pub- 
lished in the Gaceta de Madrid of the 4th of the same month and year, shall also be adopted 
in its government and administration in the manner now in force in Puerto Rico. 

Article 3. The government of His Majesty will be solicited to apply to this island in 
succession, with the modifications it may deem expedient and in virtue of the provisions of 
article 89 of the constitution of the monarchy, other laws already promulgated or which 
may be promulgated for the peninsula. 

JOAQUIN JOVELLAR. 
ARSENIO MARTINEZ CAMPOS. 

Havana, ]st March, 1878. 



rinclosure No. 2, with dispatch No. 667.1 
[Translation.] 
From the Gaceta de la Habana, of March 2. 1878. 
ARMY OF OPERATIONS OF THE ISLAND OF CUBA. 

The insurgents of the central department and of the commandancy-general of theTrocha, 
having laid down their arms, aud in expectation that their example will be followed soon 
by the others in the island ; 

The day, therefore, of the long wished for peace being near, and desiring to signalize the 
happy event by anew proof of the firm purpose which animates the government of His 
Majesty to continue in the road of progress long since undertaken, avoiding at the same time 
possible derangements of social order and of measures adopted in the period of the war; 

Having in view the sentiment which inspired the present law of the gradual emancipation 
of slavery in this Antilla; 

Considering, besides, that the majority of those slaves, who, for any cause, are to-day in 
the insurrection, have not figured in the census made in 1870 for classifying their legal 
status, or otherwise, that may have belonged to owners who, in taking an active or indirect 
part in the Cuban revolution, declared, in fact or by their own will, the freedom of their 
slaves ; and, on the other hand, taking into consideration their condition, that at that time 
they had no civil or political responsibility; and fiually recognizing the right of those owners 
who have maintained complete fidelity to the national cause to indemnification by the state, 
in sacrificing to other expediencies their legitimate property; 

Authorized by the government of His Majesty the King, and in accord with his excel- 
lency the governor-general of the island, I issue the following 



Article 1. All slaves of both sexes that may have been found in the insurrection on the 
l(Jth day of February shall remain free if they present themselves in any form to the legit- 
imate authorities or troops of the government before the 31st day of the present month of 
March. 

Article 2. The legitimate owners of those freedmen who have taken any part or have 
aided in any way, that can be proven, the insurrection, shall have no right to any indem- 
nification in the premises. 

Article 3. The lawful owners of the said freedmen who are not comprised in the pre- 
ceding article shall be indemnified in due time in conformity with what is ordered in the 
law of gradual emancipation. 

Article 4. The local authorities shall issue certificates of vicinage as free citizens to 
those slaves who present themselves and are found to be comprised in article 1, giving a 
detailed and direct account to the respective commandancies- general, which will act in 
concert with the local juntas of freedmen in regard to their new status. 

Puerto Principe, 1st March, 1878. 

ASENIO MARTINEZ CAMPOS. 
JOAQUIN JOVELLAR. 



GOVERNMENT OF THE ISLAND OF CUBA. 21 

No. 11. 

Mr. Hall to Mr. Seward. 

No. G68.] United States Consulate-General, 

Havana, March 5, 1878. 
Sir: With reference to my dispatches No. GG4, of the 23d ultimo, and 
No. 666, of the 2d instant, relating to the surrender of the Cuban insur- 
gents, I beg to transmit herewith an article, from the Diario of this date, 
containing about all of interest that has transpired since forwarding 
my last-mentioned dispatch. The reports received thus far are very 
meager; it would seem, however, that up to the present, two thousand 
and upwards of the insurgents have laid down their arms. There still 
remain to be accounted for the several forces in the eastern department 
and in the department of the Villas, whose numbers are variously esti- 
mated at from two to four thousand. There is no doubt, I imagine, that 
these bodies will soon give in their adhesion, and with it the insurrec- 
tion of Yara, which has existed over nine years, may be said to have 
ended. The terms given the insurgents are considered honorable to 
them as well as to Spaiu. It is noticeable also that the rancors and 
animosities, which existed between Cubans and Spaniards during the 
first years of the war, have to a great extent disappeared. The time 
is therefore propitious for the voluntary introduction of the long prom- 
ised reforms in the government of the island. 
I have, &c, " 

HENRY C. HALL, 

Consul- General. 



[Inclosure. — Translation.] 

From the Diario de la Marina, of March 5, 1878. 

NEW ADHESIONS TO THE CAPITULATION 

We bave said that the war is virtually terminated, by reason of the resignation of the au- 
thorities from whom emanated the powers of all those who had command of the forces of the 
revolution, or discharged special commissions in Cuba or abroad ; even in th« event that the 
latter might not be convinced of the sterility of their efforts in sustaining the ideas they en- 
tertained, theycoald not do otherwise than to follow the example of the most prominent men 
of the Cuban forces, although they might not agree to exchange their status for another 
which carried with it a loss of personal prestige ; authority cannot exist when it has lost the 
nucleus which sustains it. We are not surprised, therefore, at the news we have received, 
that Aldama, Echevarria, and others who held official positions in New York had decided to 
resign when they were informed of what had occurred in Cuba by the emissaries of the 
central Cuban committee, appointed for the purpose of making peace, We have given 
an account to our readers of the surrender of their arms by the Cuban forces in the jurisdiction 
of Sancti Spiritus, in consonance with what had been done previously by the division of the 
central department; the same will also be carried out on the 6th by scattered forces in the terri- 
tories of Sagua, Santa Clara, Cienfuegos, and Colon, which, by order of their chief, Maestre, 
are to unite on that day at a point previously fixed upon near Paso Real. The information we 
have by correspondence from Santo Domingo just received, and which besides confirms other 
news of the same nature communicated to a person whom we consider well informed. In the 
said letter it is stated, also, that at the time the order was given to the subaltern chiefs, in com- 
mand of squads, to commence the movement of concentration, they were also instructed to 
suspend hostilities, and that the news of peace becoming circulated in the ranks, there were 
many who manifested joy at the prospect of soon returning to their families and of rest 
from fatigues and privations. On the other hand the commandant general of those forces, 
a person of great influence among his subordinates, is animated by the same conciliatory 
spirit of which the capitulated chiefs have given proofs, so that with these antecedents it 
can be assured that the mission of the envoys sent by the central Cuban committee to con- 



22 GOVERNMENT OF THE ISLAND OF CUBA. 

fer with the commanders beyond the Trocha will meet the success that was to be expected. 
As we informed our readers at the time, one of the chiefs who most merited this confidence 
is the renowned Marcos Garcia who, according to a letter we received a few days ago from 
Santa Clara, has manifested the greatest zeal and interest in behalf of peace, having omitted 
neither means nor efforts in obtaining an interview with Maestre, and it is not to be doubted 
that he will follow the example of his other companions on the designated day, so near to 
hand. It is truly providential that the Cuban chiefs who have most distinguished them- 
selves in the war happily terminated, should be the ones who, with the greatest enthusiasm, 
have embraced the idea of peace, and the ones who have most efficiently contributed to the 
realization of a pacification of the island ; for which important service they merit the gen- 
eral approbation of the country. To these adhesions we are able to add another important 
one which we copy from the Periguero de Holguin of the 28th February, as follows : 
"We know that Modesto Diaz has accepted the bases of the peace, and is now in Manza- 
nillo, where he has embraced his countryman the Brigadier Francisco Heredia, chief of the 
second brigade of the commandancy-general of Bayamo and Manzanillo." 



No. 12. 

Mr. Seward to Mr. Hall. 

No. 448.] Department of State, 

Washington, March 12, 1878. 
Sm : I have to acknowledge the receipt of your dispatches Nos. 666 
and 667, both bearing date of the 2d inst., and to state that the sub- 
stance of the two decrees of the Spanish authorities accompanying the 
latter dispatch, issued on the occasion of the termination of the Cuban 
insurrection, has been communicated to the press. 
I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

F. W. SEW ABB, 
Assistant Secretary. 
To Henry C. Hall, Esq., 

Consul- General of the United States, Havana, Cuba. 



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